Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the ideas of language acquisition, comprehension, the creation of language, and the ability to hear, speak, read, and write language are all of great interest in the field of cognitive psychology. While something so fundamental to human societal function may not initially seem something of interest to psychology, it is through the cognitive processing of language that humans can communicate with one another.


Outline:
Levels of Language
Phonemes
Lexicon
Sentences
Texts
Features of Language
Communicative
Arbitrary
Structured
Generative
Dynamic
Language and Cognitive Psychology - Conclusion

From the Paper:

" As the lowest level of language, phonemes tend to correspond to letters or symbols in the language's alphabet (Willingham, 2007). In English, as with many languages, some letters actually have multiple phonemes. According to Willingham (2007), the English language has roughly 46 phonemes, though the exact count is not universally agreed upon.
"In addition to phonemes are what are referred to as allophones. These are phonemes that are slightly different from one another, but are not necessarily separate phonemes in one language, even if they are in another (Willingham, 2007). This can lead to difficulties with learning other languages, but can sometimes even create difficulty in understanding regional variations of the same language (Willingham, 2007)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Chan, K.Y. and Yitevitch, M.S. (2009) The influence of the phonological neighborhood clustering coefficient on spoken word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance. 35-6, pp 1934-1949. Retrieved 12/21/09 from EBSCOhost athttp://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=11&sid=8f66bbcd-13d3-40c2-b4fd-c19beedfdb9c%40sessionmgr14
• Merriam-Webster (2009) Lexicon. Merriam-Webster Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12/21/09 from http://www.referencecenter.com/ref/dictionary?invocationType=topsearchbox.refcentre&query=lexicon
• Pinker, S. (1994) The Language Instinct, W. Morrow and Co.
• Willingham, D. (2007) Cognition: The Thinking Animal, (3rd ed.). Pearson Education

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